In the last few days I’ve made an executive decision regarding the proposed recordings for the 3rd CD on the ‘Songs From The Mirror’ remaster.

I’ve decided to blow out the SAS band live recordings and the new recordings that were intended to happen in early October in favour of putting together a documentary DVD with David Barras.

The writing for ‘Weltschmerz’ is taking a lot longer than anticipated for a number of reasons one being that my creative time has been whittled away by a host of other demands.With Robin Boult in the USA gigging with Howard Jones for most of the Summer and both Steve Vantsis and John Beck involved in their own projects it’s been difficult to get all the players together. I felt that to allocate so much studio time and resources to recordings for a ‘historical’ project was not going to be as beneficial as focusing on the new writing. After discussions with various trusted consigliere I decided on another approach to the 3rd disc.

The sleeve notes for SFTM are complicated and demanding and I am already up to 6000 words out of a 9000 target and haven’t yet dealt with the recording, the reasons behind the choice of songs, the album and single release or the tour yet. Simone has read what I’ve written so far and she considers the sleeve notes the best yet.

So far they take in the loss of Andy Field, the change in band and management , the confrontation with Polydor, the ‘Toile tour’, the arrival of producer James Cassidy and the set up of the idea for ‘Songs from the Mirror’. The writing is concise and lean with no waffle and there are a lot of stories, mainly the funny ones, that have been omitted due to lack of space.

To add to that James Cassidy offered to write up his take on both SFTM and ‘Suits’ and has delivered 20 000 words on the period. He’s reminded me of a lot of elements that I missed out on especially regarding the studio time.There’s no way I can incorporate them in the sleeve notes.

David Barras is already primed for the documentary for the ‘Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors’ remaster and has accumulated a lot of 8mm footage from that period from my own libraries.We’ve also found material from 92 and the tour in 93 and after discussion with David we have decided to go for a documentary on SFTM and James Cassidy has agreed to come up here to take part in a joint filmed interview where we can cover James’s take on the period and cover all the information that I can’t write up in the sleeve notes. Between the footage and the interviews there is more than enough to pack a DVD that will now be the third disc on the remaster.

This can be done in the coming weeks which frees me up for ‘Weltschmerz’ writing when I have my co writers in the country and available.It also means Calum Malcolm has enough time to work on the remasters and we can get both ‘Songs from the Mirror’ and ‘Suits’ out on schedule for early December.

I know some of you were looking forward to new recordings but I think that this new plan makes a lot more sense in the long run and that the documentary will more than make up for any disappointment.

Don’t wish to be synical (if that’s how you spell it) but SFTM was hardly a big selling albym, and probably at a downturn in the career of Fish.

In all honesty, are we going to sped £25-30 on this ???

SFTM is the only Fish solo album that i did not buy. I’ve thought about getting the remaster to complete my set, but do i really need this - especially as a 3 cd set with a documentary i’ll watch at maximum once, but probably never.

I like the album for what it is, but admit I hardly ever play it. - Obviously everyone has a different view, but I’d have this down as being the Fish album that everyone wants the least, so I’d be prepared for some disappointing sales.

Disappointed too and especially because there won’t be any subtitles on the DVD which I will probably never watch…

I know it’s a lot of work but I think SFTM should be given as a present when we buy another one or two other remasters or should be sold at a very minimum symbolic price because it is the less favorite album for most of the fans…